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No More Signing on the Dotted Line

For many years cardholders were required to sign their name when they purchased something by credit or debit card. But think about the purchases you’ve made over the past week or month. How many of them required you to sign on the dotted line? In my case, I made three quick stops on the way into work this morning and didn’t scribble my name for any of those purchases.

Did you know that more than 80 percent of Mastercard in store transactions in North America today do not require a cardholder signature at checkout? That number could now reach 100 percent after April 2018, when we will no longer require signatures at checkout for any credit or debit purchases in Canada and the U.S.

Eliminating the need for signature is another step in the digital evolution of payments and payment security. At first glance, this might sound like a radical proclamation, especially to people who have had credit and debit cards for decades. However, the change matches all of our expectations for fast and convenient shopping experiences. Our consumer research found that a majority of people believe it would be easier to pay and that checkout lines would move faster if they didn’t need to sign when making a purchase.

It is important to know that the levels of security for credit and debit cards remains a priority. What consumers will find reassuring is that removing the need to sign for purchases will not have any impact on safety. Our secure network and state-of-the art systems combined with new digital payment methods that include chip, tokenization, biometrics and specialized digital platforms use newer and more secure methods to prove identity.

Beyond what you see and experience at checkout, there is behind the scenes technology at work every second of every day to protect every transaction. Mastercard has a long history of innovation and investments in all layers of security. Recently we introduced an Early Detection System to help financial institutions proactively and quickly pre-empt serious attacks. This new service provides issuers with a unique advanced alert for cards and accounts at a heightened risk of fraudulent use based on their exposure in security incidents or data breaches.

While security remains paramount, we know that convenience is also a large part of what consumers want when they are shopping and paying. Removing the need for a signature is a change our merchant partners support. The move will help merchants speed customers through checkout, provide more consistent experiences for every customer with every purchase and should decrease costs associated with safely storing signatures.

According to our research, most consumers are ready for this evolution. A large majority are not worried about retiring the “signature required” clause and still feel safe and secure without signing on the dotted line. Look for these changes to start speeding you through in store checkout in April 2018.

27 Comments

this is probably a good move, especially since i don’t think they’re any real-time signature validation anyway.

Mr G | October 20, 2017 10:49 AM

How about implementing real chip and pin like the rest of the world. Having to sign for purchases using a supposed chip and pin card is a joke especially in Europe where it always causes confusion.

Jeff Lewis | October 20, 2017 12:58 PM

Uhm… I hate to break it to.. well, your readers since I KNOW Mastercard already knows this.. but the US is one of the last countries in the world where people sign for credit purchases or allows magstripe swiping as a primary way to use your credit or debit cards.

Everywhere else, you chip and pin (just like you do when you use your modern debit card at an ATM) or tap and pay – because either of these is vastly safer than magstripe or chip and sign.

I say Mastercard already knows this because they’re the M in EMV, the world wide standard for chip and pin card technology (along with V for Visa and E for EuroPay). EMV is also the standard on which ApplePay and AndroidPay are based.

So, congrats on catching up with the rest of the world, America. About time.

Arjun | October 21, 2017 1:39 PM

Can someone explain how the tipping process in restaurants is about to change? Will they present a slip which requires me to fill in a tip only, or are the chip terminals going to come to my table, or are finally going to see tips included ?

Bill Moller | October 23, 2017 2:38 PM

Since EMV isn’t a mandate, nor is “chip, tokenization, biometrics,” how is signature security maintained?

This is especially beneficial with the wake of disasters and AI patterns!

Edward D Stevens | April 4, 2018 6:15 PM

Anyone who thinks this is a good idea has never had a credit card used by a thief/hacker. Never had anyone get my CC info with a scanner with my old, striped based card while it was in my wallet. The chips were to give us better “security”. I didn’t have my card one day when in less than 10 minutes at a hockey game, my cc provider called because someone scanned my card at the game simply by walking past me and then tried to order $900 worth of merchandise. So much for security. Now they don’t even want us to use our signature. At least with a signature, you can dispute a purchase by showing the signature doesn’t match your own. Seems to me all this technology isn’t going to make me more secure; it is going to just keep making it easier for my CC to be stolen right out from under my nose and used by anyone since we are removing every single form of identification from the process. Very sad!

Can you tell how me charge backs will be handled, if different, and if you think this will have any impact to the merchant because they won’t have the signature, which has always been proof of the sale, or part of the proof.

Teresa Twigg | April 17, 2018 12:25 PM

I know the article states that security will continue to be a priority and that chips etc. make it so, however, there are still places I shop (some major chains) where the chip reader is often on the blink or, in some cases, has not even been activated yet. So, it seems that taking the signature completely away removes yet one more tool that consumers have that would allow a fraudulent activity person to be able to make purchases on my card! One just hopes that the safety and security tools used by MasterCard are in place and tested before this layer is removed from the process. Are people shopping so rapidly that they can’t take one moment to sign their name?

Claron | April 17, 2018 4:03 PM

Not really thrilled about this, I really don’t see much difference. It just take a few seconds to sign your name.

But for security no longer require signatures could be a open for for hacker, wherever I dot believes that MasterCard it’s the leader on term of security of payment . Because everything it’s now connected, their challenge will be to keep the payment save in the future.

Beyond what you see and experience at checkout, there is behind the scenes technology at work every second of every day to protect every transaction. Mastercard has a long history of innovation and investments in all layers of security. Recently we introduced an Early Detection System to help financial institutions proactively and quickly pre-empt serious attacks. This new service provides issuers with a unique advanced alert for cards and accounts at a heightened risk of fraudulent use based on their exposure in security incidents or data breaches.

Master Card or cc card is not good , you can use debit card for your purchasing thanks

Steve Henderson | May 8, 2019 2:59 AM

With no signature being required how does a merchant prove the customer was there and purchased the products if the customer disputes the charge. Are the banks going to guarantee the charges to the merchant so he doesn’t lose his money?

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[…] Mastercard and Discover both pointed to similar reasoning and they’ll also be discontinuing signature requirements in April of next year. However, while Discover is eliminating signature requirements in the US, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean and Mastercard is ending them in the US and Canada, American Express is ceasing signature requirements globally. […]

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[…] Mastercard and Discover both pointed to similar reasoning and they’ll also be discontinuing signature requirements in April of next year. However, while Discover is eliminating signature requirements in the US, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean and Mastercard is ending them in the US and Canada, American Express is ceasing signature requirements globally. […]

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[…] Mastercard was the first card brand to state that it would no longer require signatures for purchases, announcing the change in October of 2017. The company claims that there will be no decrease in security due to the removal of the signature requirement. Executive Vice President of Mastercard Linda Kirkpatrick wrote: […]

[…] In making the announcement Mastercard noted that the change would allow consumers to pass through checkout lines more quickly, without having an adverse effect on safety and security, thanks to “new digital payment methods that include chip, tokenization, biometrics, and specialized digital platforms [that] use newer and more secure methods to prove identity.” […]

[…] no longer require many merchants to collect customer signatures. The companies’ announcements of the change all came in recent months, with executives pointing to reasons including faster checkout […]

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[…] Kirkpatrick, executive vice president of MasterCard’s U.S. market development division, wrote in a blog post. “The move will help merchants speed customers through checkout, provide more consistent […]

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[…] all four major US payment providers — Mastercard, Visa, American Express and Discover — announced plans to remove the requirement that merchants collect signatures for card transactions. Mastercard, […]

[…] than 80% of Mastercard in-store transactions in North America already did not require a signature, the company said in 2017. But many businesses, particularly restaurants and rental car companies, still […]

[…] than 80% of Mastercard in-store transactions in North America already did not require a signature, the company said in 2017. But many businesses, particularly restaurants and rental car companies, still […]

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[…] reason for the change is due to technology and changing consumer habits. In an October blog post about the pending changes, MasterCard said that more than 4 out of 5 transactions in North America […]

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[…] than 80% of Mastercard in-store transactions in North America already did not require a signature, the company said in 2017. But many businesses, particularly restaurants and rental car companies, still […]

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[…] than 80% of Mastercard in-store transactions in North America already did not require a signature, the company said in 2017. But many businesses, particularly restaurants and rental car companies, still […]

[…] all four major US payment providers — Mastercard, Visa, American Express and Discover — announced plans to remove the requirement that merchants collect signatures for card transactions. Mastercard, […]

[…] than 80% of Mastercard in-store transactions in North America already did not require a signature, the company said in 2017. But many businesses, particularly restaurants and rental car companies, still […]

[…] than 80% of Mastercard in-store transactions in North America already did not require a signature, the company said in 2017. But many businesses, particularly restaurants and rental car companies, still […]

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[…] reason for the change is due to technology and changing consumer habits. In an October blog post about the pending changes, MasterCard said that more than 4 out of 5 transactions in North America […]

[…] than 80% of Mastercard in-store transactions in North America already did not require a signature, the company said in 2017. But many businesses, particularly restaurants and rental car companies, still […]

[…] it may take time for the news to filter down to retailers, Visa, American Express, Discover and Mastercard have said that as of this month, they will no longer require customers to sign their names when […]

[…] reason for the change is due to technology and changing consumer habits. Inan October blog post about the pending changes, MasterCard said that more than 4 out of 5 transactions in North America […]

[…] than 80% of Mastercard in-store transactions in North America already did not require a signature, the company said in 2017. But many businesses, particularly restaurants and rental car companies, still […]

[…] than 80% of Mastercard in-store transactions in North America already did not require a signature, the company said in 2017. But many businesses, particularly restaurants and rental car companies, still […]

[…] than 80% of Mastercard in-store transactions in North America already did not require a signature, the company said in 2017. But many businesses, particularly restaurants and rental car companies, still […]

[…] than 80% of Mastercard in-store transactions in North America already did not require a signature, the company said in 2017. But many businesses, particularly restaurants and rental car companies, still […]

[…] than 80% of Mastercard in-store transactions in North America already did not require a signature, the company said in 2017. But many businesses, particularly restaurants and rental car companies, still […]

[…] it may take time for the news to filter down to retailers, Visa, American Express, Discover and Mastercard have said that as of this month, they will no longer require customers to sign their names when […]

[…] it may take time for the news to filter down to retailers, Visa, American Express, Discover and Mastercard have said that as of this month, they will no longer require customers to sign their names when […]

[…] than 80% of Mastercard in-store transactions in North America already did not require a signature, the company said in 2017. But many businesses, particularly restaurants and rental car companies, still […]

[…] than 80% of Mastercard in-store transactions in North America already did not require a signature, the company said in 2017. But many businesses, particularly restaurants and rental car companies, still […]

[…] than 80% of Mastercard in-store transactions in North America already did not require a signature, the company said in 2017. But many businesses, particularly restaurants and rental car companies, still […]

[…] than 80% of Mastercard in-store transactions in North America already did not require a signature, the company said in 2017. But many businesses, particularly restaurants and rental car companies, still […]

[…] have any impact on safety,” said MasterCard’s executive vice president Linda Kirkpatrick in a recent blog post. “Our secure network and state-of-the-art systems combined with new digital payment methods that […]

[…] Mastercard also plans to eliminate signature requirements for credit and debit payments in April, but only for the U.S. and Canada. At the same time Discover will drop its requirement for these markets along with Mexico and the Caribbean. […]

[…] to collect cardholder signatures for in-store purchases. Mastercard led the industry with this announcement in the U.S. and Canada last fall, and now extends this option to merchants around the […]

[…] case with credit card signatures. By now, they’ve simply outlived their usefulness, a fact supported by Mastercard’s revelation that it already didn’t require signatures for 80 percent of its transactions even before the […]

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By clicking “Submit / Send”, I understand that my personal data will be processed by Mastercard International and its affiliates in the context of the Mastercard Newsroom as described in the Global Privacy Notice